5 Reasons Your Child Should Take Piano Lessons

I’m talking about my favourite thing in the whole wide world today – piano lessons! Ahhh! I’m so excited! When I was a kid, I took piano lessons, singing lessons, drum lessons, guitar lessons, and I even played the flute for awhile. I wanted to play drums in the high school band, but they put me on the xylophone instead because the boys didn’t know how to play it. (Can you picture me up there, wearing black pants, a white blouse and a bright purple bow tie rocking out on the xylophone???)

Piano was by far my favourite instrument – I took lessons from the time I was 6 years old right until I turned 18 and left for University. I have been waiting a long time for the day that I get to sign my daughter up for piano lessons, and that day is finally here! I’m over the moon, even if she’s a little nervous. I found her a piano teacher using an online directory and we start lessons next week. I can’t wait!

If you need a piano teacher, it’s easy to find them using online directories. The Royal Conservatory of Music has an awesome directory of qualified teachers and even shows you how close they are to your house. Very convenient!

If you couldn’t tell, I’m VERY passionate about music. But taking music lessons is more important than simply learning about music. I honestly and truly believe that children who take piano lessons get better grades in school and are likely to be more successful in life. Learning how to play an instrument teaches you how to focus and how to work hard. There are some pretty incredible benefits!

5 Reasons Your Child Should Take Piano Lessons

How many times have you heard someone say “I wish I knew how to play the piano!” or “I wish I didn’t quit taking piano lessons!” I hear it all the time from people who took a year or two of piano lessons. Or maybe they never had the opportunity to take lessons at all?

If you’re thinking of signing up your child for lessons, I definitely recommend giving it a try! There are some pretty amazing cognitive benefits, even if it’s only for a short time!

It’s not easy to sit at the piano and practice every day. It takes patience, focus and discipline. People who know how to persevere when things are difficult are more likely to succeed when they try new things. And the more opportunities we give our children to challenge themselves, the more likely they’ll be to push themselves in other areas of their lives.

Whether it’s learning a challenging piece of music, studying for high school exams, or graduating from law school, learning how to sit down, concentrate and work hard is a skill that will benefit them their entire life.

How’s that for a list!? I could go on and on about all the research that’s been done and all the benefits that music has on cognitive ability. Believe me, there’s a LOT of ways music helps the brain. But since I’m not an expert on the science behind it I won’t try to rewrite it all here. You can read all about the Benefits of Music Education for yourself. It’s pretty amazing!

Even if your child only takes music lessons for a short period of time, there are tons of benefits. Learning how to play an instrument is essentially the same as learning a different language, so it kind of makes sense that it would trigger similar parts of the brain.

3. Children Become Better at Sensing Feelings, Emotions, and Mood

There are subtle changes in our voices that can indicate our moods and emotions. Similarly, there are changes in music that allow us to sense emotion. Changes in tone, changes in volume, changes in melody. It’s incredible how much “feeling” you can interpret from listening to a piece of music! Piano lessons help children learn a surprising amount about feelings and empathy.

Research shows that children who have taken music lessons are better able to hear the subtle differences in tone – in both music and speech. It helps them to become better listeners and to better understand the emotions that people are trying to convey through normal conversation.

4. Performing in Public Builds Confidence

It takes a lot of courage to sit in front of a large group of people and trust your nervous fingers to play a beautiful melody. It builds self confidence that will help your child throughout their entire life.

Even in my own career, there have been times when I’ve stood in front of large groups of people, all staring at me, waiting for me to say something. At first I’m terrified, but then it dawns on me, it doesn’t matter what I’m talking about, it’s way easier to speak to them than to sit down and play the piano for them. And all my nervousness disappears. It was like all those music performances set me up to be confident at speaking in front of groups of people. It took me years to realize how beneficial it really was.

5. It’s a Pretty Amazing Skill to Have!

I’ve explained a few of the cognitive benefits of taking piano lessons, but one thing I need to mention is that when you know how to play the piano, it feels AMAZING. It’s an incredible feeling to be able to sit in front of a piano, read musical notes on a page and watch (and listen to) your fingers playing something breathtakingly beautiful.

Whether you’re a 6 year old playing a melody for the first time, a teenager conquering a challenging piece of music, or a parent playing Christmas carols for their children – it makes you feel pretty awesome to be able to make music.

To this day, playing piano is one of my absolute favourite things to do and I am so grateful that my parents didn’t let me quit.

How to Find a Teacher

I loved my piano teacher when I was growing up. She was amazing! And I can’t wait to get to know my daughter’s new piano teacher. There are a lot of really awesome teachers out there, and if I can convince you to check out the online music teacher directory to see if there’s a piano teacher near you, then my heart will grow a little bit bigger knowing that just maybe, I’m leading someone towards a lifelong passion for music.

This post was sponsored by The Royal Conservatory of Music, but the opinions are entirely my own. I don’t do very many sponsored posts on this blog – it has to be the right fit. But when I came across an opportunity to write a post for The Royal Conservatory of Music, I have to say, I was a little bit giddy. When I was a child, all of my music lessons were through The Royal Conservatory of Music. They always have and always will have a soft spot in my heart.

Comments

So good of you to bring this to everyone’s attention. I’m biased (having been a high school music teacher for almost 30 years and a private music teacher since I was 16) but learning to read and interpret music notation is a power-tool. This is what fires up several facets of the brain all at once- there’s no other activity that does all this simultaneously that I’ve been able to find. Along with adequate sleep each night, your child will be developing grey matter at a beautiful rate. Better than that, they’ll develop a beautiful character and soul. I really hope your children end up with the thrill of being able to play instruments together (the sooner, the better). I think that’s the biggest joy in playing music.

Thank you for sharing your insight on how learning piano can help their reading. I never would have thought that it would help a child develop better reading ability. I can’t wait to start looking for a piano teacher for my little one!

It is interesting the correlation between music and listening skills. I knew there were benefits to learning music but didn’t realize it could help become a better communicator. I would love to get my daughter started as early as possible on the piano.